Friday, April 04, 2008

I'm Peaceful

and if you try to say otherwise, I'll kill you.

It's unfortunate that those who threaten (and use) violence get their way in our society. An artist can feel perfectly safe (and is) if he creates images ridiculing or blaspheming Jesus Christ, but woe unto him who even mentions Mohammad.

Because the radicals in Islam have made such an issue of images/comments regarding their religion and have threated violence and killed so many, artists and writers shrink from this subject. Even if you aren't threatened directly by Islam, the so-called Enlightened Ones in society will gasp and shun you as uninformed.

This one isn't about religion, but look how quickly the San Francisco Art Institute responded to a threat of violence.

The San Francisco Art Institute has shut down an exhibit and called off a planned discussion about it because of threats of violence from animal rights groups. The exhibit, “Don’t Trust Me,” features video clips by the artist Adel Abdessemed in which animals are shown being bludgeoned to death. The art institute announced that criticism of the exhibit has escalated to threats of violence. Chris Bratton, president of the institute, issued a statement that said that while institute officials “repudiate these threats,” his “first concern” was with the safety of students, professors and others at the institute so he had to shut down the show. “Though we’ve decided to take this action, SFAI stands behind the exhibition as an instance of a long-standing and serious commitment, on SFAI’s part, to reflection on, and free and open discussion of, contemporary global art and culture. As an institution, we take seriously our responsibility to encourage and promote such dialogue.” In Defense of Animals is among the groups that have questioned the institute for acting as host for the exhibit. Here is that group’s critique.